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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between credit access and technical efficiency of smallholder crop farmers in northern Ghana.

The study uses a random sample of 445 farming households in the three northern regions of Ghana. The two-stage double bootstrap DEA approach was used to consistently estimate technical efficiency scores as well as the determinants.

The results revealed that, given the current technology, there is substantial yield or productivity gap among the sample of producers in northern Ghana used for the study. This is because producers can reduce input use by over 50.0 percent while still achieving the same output levels. It is further revealed that proportion of household income from off-farm activities, distance of farm from homestead, location and credit access are significant determinants of technical efficiency.

The current study differs from previous studies in two basic ways. First, it takes into account the fact that smallholder farmers practise mixed or inter-cropping by using value of output so that various crops on a given plot of the farmer can be aggregated; and second, a nonparametric approach is adopted so that the inherent inconsistencies in using the two-step model within a parametric framework can be avoided.

This study explores the socioeconomic benefits and challenges of smock dealership in Tamale. Despite the relevance of the African traditional garment sector in the socio-cultural and economic development of local and national economies, the industry is bedeviled with a plethora of challenges. Empirical evidence also confirms that African management practices have been largely dependent on western ideologies without taking cognisance of the unique features of indigenous practices. This case study provides an account of successful indigenous business practices among smock dealers in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana, employing mainly qualitative descriptive research methods. Manual thematic analysis was utilised on the qualitative data. Findings showed that smock businesses offer economic/financial benefits such as income generation, family up-keep, trade, serves as wedding attires, social networks, projects northern cultures, sources of income and livelihood. We also found various advantages of deploying technology in smock business and these include efficiency, productivity, fraud prevention, financial benefits to the producers, competitiveness and globalisation via social media, and customer relationship building. It is recommended that the government make wearing made-in-Ghana clothing a policy and enforce its use. Also, the Ghanaian government and NGOs should make industrial sewing machines available to encourage the business, thereby increasing smock production.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the profitability of rice production for irrigated and rain-fed farmers; determine the factors that influence farmers' decision to participate in irrigation and the impact of irrigation on rice farmers' profitability in northern Ghana.

Using cross-sectional data collected from 543 rice farmers in northern Ghana, the study employed both non-parametric (cost benefit analysis) and parametric (endogenous switching regression) approaches to analyse the data.

The empirical results reveal a significant difference between the profits of irrigated (GHS 2442.30) and rain-fed farmers (GHS 576.20), as well as the cost-benefit ratios between irrigators (2.53) and rain-fed farmers (1.37). Also, participation in irrigation was found to be influenced by relatively small farm size and off-farm income; while profitability was influenced by membership in a farmer-based organization, access to agricultural extension services and perception of decreasing rainfall intensity. Irrigation also had a positive significant net impact on profitability of rice production.

The results provide justification for development partners and the government of Ghana through the “one-village-one-dam” policy, to invest in irrigation in northern Ghana in order to improve household welfare as well as build resilience for sustainable production systems.

This study is the first of its kind to provide a robust analysis of the difference in profits of rain-fed and irrigated rice farmers while estimating the determinants of Ghanaian farmers' choice of either of the regimes within a bias-corrected framework.

This study aims to establish the relationship between indoor environmental quality and residential mobility in student housing in Ghana.

Using multiple regression and exploratory factor analysis through post occupancy evaluation, 26 indoor environmental quality (IEQ) indicators were explored among 1,912 students living in Purpose-Built off-campus university housing in Northern Ghana.

The study established a negative relationship between indoor environmental quality and residential mobility among student housing in Northern Ghana. Residential mobility is primarily attributed to the dissatisfaction with thermal and indoor air quality.

The negative relationship affects vacancy and rental cashflows for property investors. Also, understanding local environmental conditions can influence future student housing design and enhance thermal and indoor air quality.

The authors contribute to studies on indoor environmental quality in student housing. In addition, establishing the relationship between indoor environmental quality and residential mobility in tropical African regions is novel.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the extent and trends of income inequality as well as the contribution of household and community-level factors in explaining inequality within north and south in Ghana.

The study employs both descriptive and regression methods. The study adopts the methodology by Fields (2002) to assess the importance of household and community attributes in explaining the level of inequality within the north and the south.

The findings of the study show that household characteristics such as urban location, no education, public and private formal economic activities, and not covered by National Health Insurance Scheme are major determinants of inequality within the north and the south. Specifically, within the north, the 20-34 year age group is the most prominent contributor to inequality. Within the south, the most important determinant of inequality is the completion of junior high school. The contribution of community-level features shows that, within the north, access to banks is the most vital factor to inequality, whereas within the south, access to electricity and public transport is the most important community factor.

The study provides an understanding of the underlying household and community factors driving the observed inequality patterns within the north and the south in Ghana. Policy options are identified for achieving the sustainable development goals.

The study uses the latest round of the Ghana Living Standards survey, GLSS 6, which covers new data on a nationally representative sample of 18,000 households in 1,200 enumeration areas.

This chapter uses a feminist political ecology perspective to demonstrate how gender interacts with access to land as a re/productive resource in Tamale, a rapidly urbanizing city in West Africa. The study gives insight into the strategies that vulnerable groups employ to gain access to resources.

An ethnographic field study was carried out over 16 months, taking a case study approach involving interviews, participant observation and focus groups.

Women’s access to land is restricted in order to guarantee their labor for household reproductive tasks and inheritance. Yet they are using various traditional and contemporary strategies to reconcile their landless status with their food provisioning responsibilities. These involve forging networks with individuals and development institutions as well as harvesting and marketing. As land markets accelerate, these strategies become more important, even though they offer no guarantee that a woman can provide what she needs to her household. Formalized institutions aiming to give women access to land do not necessarily fulfill those functions if they are naive of the historical and cultural context.

Marginalization of groups of people, such as women, with regards to resource access is a result of complex interlocking historical processes that are often a result of dominant groups’ efforts to retain power.

We confirm that gender is a primary element organizing access to land. The way this is performed in Northern Ghana results from the construction of tradition through post/colonial, religious and neoliberal contexts.

The originality of this work lies in its use of in-depth ethnographic data.

This paper aims to investigate farmers’ vulnerability to climate change and variability in the northern region of Ghana.

The study assessed the vulnerability of male-headed and female-headed farming households to climate change and variability by using the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and tested for significant difference in their vulnerability levels by applying independent two-sample-student’s t-test based on gender by using a sample of 210 smallholder farming households.

The results revealed a significant difference in the vulnerability levels of female-headed and male-headed farming households. Female–headed households were more vulnerable to livelihood strategies, socio-demographic profile, social networks, water and food major components of the LVI, whereas male-headed households were more vulnerable to health. The vulnerability indices revealed that female–headed households were more sensitive to the impact of climate change and variability. However, female-headed households have the least adaptive capacities. In all, female-headed farming households are more vulnerable to climate change and variability than male-headed farming households.

The study recommends that female-headed households should be given priority in both on-going and new intervention projects in climate change and agriculture by empowering them through financial resource support to venture into other income-generating activities. This would enable them to diversify their sources of livelihoods to boost their resilience to climate change and variability.

This is the first study that examined the gender dimension of vulnerability of smallholder farmers in Ghana by using the livelihood vulnerability framework. Female subordination in northern region of Ghana has been profound to warrant a study on gender dimension in relation to climate change and variability, especially as it is a semi-arid region with unpredictable climatic conditions. This research revealed the comparative vulnerability of male- and female-headed households to climate change and variability.

Promoted for its inclusivity, agricultural value chain (AVC) financing leverages social capital and mechanisms such as off-take agreements and forward contracts to reduce borrowing and lending costs and risks for both farmers and lending institutions. AVC financing has been defined as the flow of financial products and services to and among the various actors within the AVC to address constraints of production and distribution and fulfill the needs of those involved in the chain by reducing risk and improving efficiency. This paper investigates how farmers' involvement in AVC affects their access to credit.

The authors collected primary data from 400 crop farmers in northern Ghana through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed the data, using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model.

Joint participation in AVC increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 64 and 78%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Similarly, participation in AVC horizontal linkage and AVC vertical linkage increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 40 and 47% and 46 and 74%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Irrigation farming, extension visits, knowledge of AVC in the community, access to a storage facility and trust in contract farming significantly influenced farmers' participation in AVC.

The authors’ work offers valuable insights into how different dimensions of value chain participation can impact smallholder farmers' access to credit. This work also underscores the importance of considering both formal and informal credit sources when analyzing the outcomes of value chain participation. The findings could enable formal financial providers to identify, liaise and/or resource informal financial players such as value chain actors to supply both formal and informal credit to farmers in AVCs.

Production credit is essential for enhancing the technical efficiency (TE) and the welfare of smallholder farmers in Africa. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of credit on smallholders’ TE using cross-sectional data from 223 maize-producing households in Northern Ghana.

Due to the exogenous assignment of credit and assumption of homogeneity in farm technologies, the propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to compare the average difference in TE between farmers that had received credit and those that had not.

The results revealed that production credit impacts positively on smallholder farmers’ TE. Access to production credit is significantly influenced by access to markets and extension services, distance to market, asset index and land fragmentation. The provision of credit enhances the timely purchase and efficient allocation of farming inputs to produce the maximum possible output. Per capita income and land fragmentation also play important roles in reducing smallholders’ TE.

To increase efficiency gains, credit programs for agricultural interventions should target resource-poor smallholder farmers. The efficiency gains can be sustained through stronger partnerships with financial institutions. Policy interventions aimed at increasing smallholder farmers’ access to production credit (e.g. through the creation of a conducive investment environment that lowers the lending rate and collateral requirements) must be vigorously pursued.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the only recent studies to examine the impact of credit on the TE of farming households by applying the translog stochastic frontier production function and the PSM approaches.